The Australian Christian Lobby has expressed disappointment with the federal government’s decision to abandon its controversial plan for an internet filter.

Minister for Communications, Senator Stephen Conroy announced today there is no need for mandatory filtering legislation.

His statement comes in light of a new agreement with Australia’s major Internet Service Providers (ISPs).

Conroy says the ISPs are “taking appropriate steps to meet their lawful obligations” in blocking child abuse websites on the INTERPOL ‘worst of’ child abuse list.

In 2010, a review of Australia’s classification rules recommended the ‘refused classification’ category be narrowed into a ‘prohibited content’ category, which would include content like child abuse material.

But ACL’s managing director Jim Wallace argues there is a lot more objectionable content on the web that should be filtered, including material that links sex and violence, pornography “which generally depicts women as objects”, material instructing in crime or terrorism, and material relating to bestiality.

He says today’s announcement falls well short of the internet safety commitment given by the government prior to the last election.

“The government had agreed to block or filter refused classification material; now they’ll only [block] part [of it]. Surely that’s illogical. If we don’t want it, why are we filtering some and not the rest?” Wallace told Eternity news online today.

ACL is one of the few groups unhappy with the decision.

The majority of online stakeholders, including the Internet Industry Association welcomed the move.

Opposition communications spokesman Malcolm Turnbull suggesting a mandatory filter would “never have been effective”.

“It would have just given parents a false sense of security,” Turnbull told The Australian. “There is no substitute for parents taking responsibility for their children.”

Wallace says parental responsibility is dependent on parents who have the time and technical knowledge to protect their children online, something he argues many don’t have.

‘The reality is, if you’ve got two parents working, you’ve got great difficulty in trying to control this. There’s also a profusion of handheld devices so these things can be downloaded… Parents tend to lose out.”

Conroy says the commitment from ISPs will mean Interpol-listed child abuse material is blocked for more than 90 per cent of Australia’s internet users.

Featured image: sxc.hu